Vinyl plank flooring is water resistant not waterproof. If water sits long on the joints it can infiltrate to the backing and mold/warp. If you are very careful to wipe up water immediately then it shouldn’t be a problem.

Thanks to both of you. All valid points. I always use bath mats, so unless we have a burst pipe, we should be good.

Upstairs only has carpet so no wood. I removed the carpet from the bathroom. Why do people put carpet in a bathroom. Cheap, I guess. My husband loves carpet in the bathroom and hates tile. I think it is because he lets the carpet dry his feet! Plus it is warmer.

Yes, we will buy all of it at once.

Another question....

We had laminate flooring in another house, and every once in a while, we had to scoot the tiles with our feet to close the gaps. It was installed correctly with the ability to expand, but the planks moved too much. The LVPs look like they have a rubber backing on it so maybe they won't slip apart. Thoughts??

A vinyl floating floor installation requires FLAT for the subfloor. The carpet will hide THE WORST subfloors possible. Yes carpet is used because it is cheap. One of the reasons carpet is cheap is it floats over top of the worst looking subfloor imaginable. You should expect subfloor prep in the range of $2-$4/sf.

A click together vinyl floor is a more delicate install than laminate. A poorly installed laminate floor will walk itself apart (even when you *think it was properly installed). A properly installed laminate will never walk itself apart. Part of the *proper installation = subfloor preparation.

In essence the success of the vinyl install will come down to the subfloor prep.

I don't like the rubber backed vinyl simply because some of the rubber products have an odour. As to moving around, the backing can make noise if the subfloor isn't prepared/flat enough. The cork backing.

Well, shoot. Shaw product info stated, "A glue-down installation will require more preparation to the subfloor than a floating floor." I assumed a floating floor would be more forgiving.

How do I know if the plywood subfloor is ready or not? What do I look for?

Another question...does the toilet get removed before we have the flooring installed? What about the sink cabinet? Toilet on top of plank? Vanity installed then install the flooring?

Thanks.

Glue down requires concrete or plywood (not OSB). It also requires flat. A floating floor can go over top of old flooring - so long as it is FLAT.

The one thing carpet hides = non-flat surfaces. And that's where everyone gets caught up in the DIY craze. Just because the product *says it can go over top of most old flooring products doesn't mean you get to skip the subfloor prep.

And just because the sales person says its easy to install, doesn't mean it is easy to 'get right'. When it comes to vinyl floating floors the SINGLE most important thing is the flattening of the subfloor. Without it you are looking at a complete redo in just a few years.

Yes, I understood that. What does flat mean? Level? No imperfections (bumps) in the plywood?

How do I know if the plywood subfloor is ready or not? What do I look for?

Another question...does the toilet get removed before we have the flooring installed? What about the sink cabinet? Toilet on top of plank? Vanity installed then install the flooring?

Your install is going to get tricky. I've seen the doorways you have to get to in another post. Those angles are going to be interesting to cut.

A floating floor is NEVER installed with anything heavy/anchoring it to the floor. That means the toilet cannot sit on the floor. The vanity cannot sit on the floor.

The need for 'flat' is required. Go ahead and google 'laser level' and 'how to create flat subfloor'. You will need the correct tools for the job. You will need transition strips for the doorways. You will need to learn the 'flooring industry' in a few short weeks. It can be done. We have oodles of time now that we are at home for COVID-19...it is still a lot of knowledge you will need to learn before you move forward with the installation.

Ok. Thanks.

We had lvt tile look installed over old tile and I love it.

Thanks, Karen. Do you have pictures?

I went to look at the vinyl planks again, and I talked to the owners. They said they have installed these vinyl planks a lot, and since they are floating, they can hide a lot of problems. They said they would not have a problem making sure the floor is flat. So I can get them to install them. Yay!

Now, as far as mixing carpet with vinyl fake wood planks with wood trim and oak cabinets...I am lost.

1. Brand new bathroom sink cabinet has a medium oak stain, so I don't know if a vinyl "wood" plank will work with it. Vinyl plank is a grayish brown. I am not sure what else to use, but every vinyl plank is wood look. Vinyl tiles have patterns too.

2. Trim in the TV room is a darker stain with the brown vinyl "wood" look. The trim looks really red in the picture, but it is more brown with a little red. I can match the carpet or I can match the bathroom sink cabinet. Which one?

Back to the flooring store.

Gibraltar left to right: Sultan, Wexford, and Classon. I think I like the Wexford best (middle).

Wexford on left and Sultan on right.

Much better than the wood look.

Core-Tec Pro Plus Enhanced tile floors can be installed in high-traffic and high-moisture areas. Constructed from a high-density composition with special top and bottom layers for added stability, the rigid core provides superior impact and dent resistance. All styles in the COREtec Pro Plus Enhanced Collection feature the patented COREtec® technology, making them 100% waterproof. COREtec Pro Plus Enhanced floors can be installed in wet areas and will never swell when exposed to water. All COREtec floors are dimensionally stable, and will not expand or contract due to temperature or humidity under normal conditions. Plus, COREtec never needs expansion strips in large rooms. Each COREtec Pro Plus Enhanced plank or tile has an attached cork underlayment for a quieter, warmer floor that is naturally resistant to mold and mildew that can cause odors.

I like the vein cut travertine look myself. My worry: gray doesn't like to play very nicely with orange/amber tones of wood.

My monitor shows hints of purple in your samples. Be VERY careful of mixing gray with natural wood tones. It can look pretty bad. Ignore the carpet. The cabinetry is much more important.

I would work with a warmer tone than what you have showing in the last photo. You need to work with more brown/orange tones. It can still be very light...just stay away from the blue/purple tones in most grays.

Wexford on the left and Sultan on the right. The Sultan looks like it is splotchy...like something spilled on it and it has dried. The Sultan is more gray in the background with brown, and the Wexford is more brown and no gray.

Sultan on the left and Classon on the right. The fake grout lines on the Classon bug me for some reason. I can barely see the fake grout lines on the Wexford.

I took a picture of Sultan outdoors. Splotchy looking with lots of different grays.

All lights in my house are warm so tiles look brown in the house. No windows in the room the tile will be in, so no natural light.

Regardless of where you take the photos and the lighting it is in, the tones you have chosen are not working with orange. They are too gray to harmonize.

Please pick something in the brown travertine look. Colour clashes can be MINIMIZED with lighting but never REVERSED. You still have a colour clash in your own lighting.

Sometimes the easiest way to figure something out is: If you were dressing yourself in the morning, would you put these TWO colours together as a 'well dressed' outfit? If you wouldn't dress yourself like this then don't dress your house with it either.

I don't know what travertine looks like, so I will have to Google it. I looked at all the vinyl tiles they had at the flooring store. Chords looks brown on my monitor, but I did not like it with my wood stain and carpet. (I took them to the store.) The other 2 dark brown really don't work with the cabinet stain plus they look like wood planks with wood grain. They clashed horribly.

The travertine I looked at looks like a gold or yellow tone. I continued searching for vinyl tiles, and I am now overwhelmed. The ONLY flooring place near us (1/2 hr away) was the one who suggested Coretec Pro Plus. She picked the colors with my oak wood. Originally she picked a medium dark brown vinyl plank. I thought that vinyl planks next to real wood planks (a cabinet) was a huge no-no. Maybe it was for a vinyl wood floor next to a real floor that was a no-no. The medium oak color is going to have to stay since he installed it today. He had already stained and finished it.

Reading hundreds of Houzz posts about vinyl tiles/planks has not helped. Footprints, cloudy floors, scratches...oh my! Some people hate vinyl and others love it. They even have the exact same brand. I found one post with over 2200 responses. I will read it tomorrow.

I can't find any color that I like except for the wood looking planks, but I think the tile looking vinyl would look better. I am out of time. I paid for the baseboard trim to be installed, but now we will have to install it ourselves. The contractor is almost finished so I will have to pay him with the trim uninstalled. Not his fault I couldn't find what I wanted. I just don't know what to choose. He told me ceramic tile was out which was what I wanted originally.

I discovered Supercore today, so more research is needed. I am so sick of remodeling.

I like the Wexford best too. I like a lighter colored floor in general. I would not go brown, but as neutral as you can get. Talk to your contractor about the trim and see what you can negotiate. You might also want to look at CoreTec and Karndean, or just pick something and be happy with it. I'm indecisive too and sometimes need a push to decide.

I too am looking for LVT for bathrooms. We have a 13 year old laminate tile, travertine look, Wilsonart, that we love. While I do notice streaking and prints after cleaning, I don't notice those in a day or too. It's a matte finish. Just talked to my mom about it and her comment was "light color shows dirt, dark colors show dust" so, we'll go light :-)